Can You Keep ‘Em Warm When The Temp Hits Zero!

It was FREEZING December morning in New York, why were we on an open top bus touring this tireless city?

Looking back it was a crazy decision BUT . . .

We would have missed the treat of a lifetime as the tour guide entertained, entranced and totally engrossed us with his “Oh so professional” presentation!

He was born a New Yorker, not some imported, cardboard cut-out who had learned his lines! This guy was the genuine thing.

Why did this matter?

Because it made his presentation totally authentic, peppered with anecdotes about characters (some well-known, some not) as they related to the particular areas we covered on that cold, cold morning. He knew the price of apartments and who lived there, he even knew what they cost some 30 years back. He told us the stories of the Great Recession as they had been told to him, he knew every sad fact about the Twin Towers disaster – he had lived through it. He knew some who had escaped and some who had perished.

Yeah, he pointed out the all traditional bits we all wanted to see (and the Japanese paparazzi wanted to record) and that was needed, it was essential. But . . .

what brought the whole thing to life were the stories that only a local would know and the way he told them.

Okay – He used questions to catch our attention and involve our imagination.He paused for emphasis at just the right times, constantly changed the pitch and pace of his talk to match the mood of the location (from trendy Greenwich Village to the Sombre Ground Zero to the apartment block that was the outside view of Friends) and gestured as best he could with the mike in his gloved hand. However . . .

. . what topped the lot was this guys extensive “lived-in” knowledge of the city, his obvious love for his birth place and the boundless enthusiasm with which he conveyed this to his audience.

We saw it through his every day experienced eyes.

We were moved as his love of the Big Apple became ours.

In that short time together he managed to draw back the curtain and reveal something to us that made us want to stay and become part of this 24/7 non stop city (until he revealed the price of the tiniest apartment, that is!)

And het kept us warm! (even warm enough to take my gloves off and do a quick sketch of him).

What’s your knowledge of your subject like? – Is it deep? Is it like a an iceberg showing only a little to the world but having an invisible base that could sink the Titanic?

How about love for your subject? If you don’t love it your audience will soon feel the cold!

And have you learned to present with genuine enthusiasm that they will catch and pass on.